New report reviews the consumer protections offered by online services – including gambling
20.10.2022
A new report by KPMG has reviewed the consumer protections of various online services, including gambling, and its findings show that EGBA members offer many detailed consumer protection measures.
Brussels, Today – A new report by KPMG has reviewed the consumer protection measures offered by various online services, including gambling, and found that EGBA members offer many and detailed consumer protection measures, particularly in respect to safer gambling and data protection.
The report, commissioned by EGBA, reviewed one gambling website from each of EGBA’s six member companies[1] in both Denmark and the UK,[2] along with one website in each jurisdiction for selected social media, financial services, relationship, alcohol retail, and e-sports companies. KPMG reviewed the terms and conditions contracts[3] of each website across five focus areas: Know-Your-Customer; Customer Safety; Data Protection; Anti-money Laundering; and Advertising.
For the reviewed websites of EGBA members, the report found:
- Know Your Customer (KYC): All websites have robust KYC procedures in both jurisdictions (e.g. age verification). All but one of the websites require proof of identity during account sign up.
- Customer Safety: All websites have extensive safer gambling practices, with safer gambling featuring prominently on their websites. Tools and resources to help and support customers are clearly available and prominent on each website (e.g. helplines; and safety tools such as Loss Limits; Self-Exclusion; and Time Outs).
- Data Protection: The websites have extensive data protection policies and statutory responsibilities, including details of rights; data retention; data control; lawful basis for processing data; privacy policy and personal information processing.
- Anti-Money Laundering (AML): Most websites offer detailed AML practices, while the websites of two companies had only a moderate amount of information available in respect to their AML practices on their websites.
- Advertising: With one exception, on all the websites it is clearly stated that personal data is used to provide targeted and tailored product recommendations. Four websites clearly state that players may opt out of receiving marketing/advertising communications.
“We welcome the report and its findings, which offers a valuable barometer of the level of consumer protection offered by our members. The purpose of the report is to check how EGBA member companies sit within the bigger world of online services in terms of the consumer protections they offer. The findings clearly show that EGBA members have a high commitment to offering their customers a high standard of consumer protection.” – Maarten Haijer, Secretary General, European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA).
A summary presentation of the report is available here.
About EGBA
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) is the Brussels-based trade association representing the leading online gaming and betting operators established, licensed, and regulated within the EU, including bet365, Betsson Group, Entain, Flutter, Kindred Group, and William Hill. EGBA works together with national and EU regulatory authorities and other stakeholders towards a well-regulated and well-channelled online gambling market which provides a high level of consumer protection and takes account of the realities of the internet and online consumer demand. EGBA member companies meet the highest regulatory standards and, in 2020, had 234 online gambling licenses to provide their services to 29 million customers across 19 different European countries. Currently, EGBA members account for 36% of Europe’s online gambling gross gaming revenue (GGR).